Prawn khichadi

CKP-style pilaf with shrimp and ambemohar rice

My husband’s soul food is this authentic CKP-style prawn khichadi made by his mom. I normally do not like food that involves cooking in seafood stock, so I was quite reluctant to give this dish a try.

One lazy Sunday aternoon, just because I liked the idea of not making the prawn curry and rice separately, I grabbed the recipe that my mother-in-law had written on a piece of paper and tried this one-pot meal!

And it turned out unbelievably good. We have been making it every other Sunday and I almost always overeat it, because it is so hearty and delicious, you just want to keep eating it 😛

I must give credit to my MIL’s treasure trove of recipes, her detailed explanation (which makes sure every time I try one of her recipes, it turns out absolutely perfect!) and her beautiful handwriting 🙂

Moving over to the recipe: This recipe serves 3-4 people

You will need:

300 g prawns/ shrimp (depending on the shrimp:rice ratio that you prefer) – cleaned and de-veined

250 g (1 cup) ambemohar rice. If not available, you can use any short-grain fragrant rice such as jasmine rice. If nothing else is available, basmati should work ok!

1 onion finely chopped (in the pictures I have used thinly sliced onion, which is also fine, but in my experience, this dish tastes better with finely chopped onion)

1 tomato – diced

1-2 tbsp of green-brown vatan (this is a staple in my kitchen. Vatan is a wet mix of herbs and spices, made into a paste and added to curries. I have a blob of this particular one in my fridge at all times, which keeps well for over a month. detailed procedure for this is in the recipe steps)

1/2 cup coconut milk

2 cups hot water

2 tsp ginger garlic paste

turmeric powder

chilli powder

salt

Kokum agal (garcinia indica/ amsul concentrate). If not available just use lemon juice

1/2 tsp garam masala

2 cloves

1 cardamom

1 small piece of cinnamon

4-5 black peppercorns

1-2 tbsp coconut oil

1 tbsp ghee

Procedure:

• Clean and wash the shrimp thoroughly and drain off excess water
• add the 2 tsp ginger-garlic paste, 1/2 tsp turmeric powder, 1 tsp red chilli powder, salt and 1 tbsp agal or lemon juice to the shrimp and mix well
• Keep aside to marinate for at least half an hour

• Wash the rice thoroughly and soak it in clean water for about 20 minutes. after 20 minutes, drain the water and keep aside

• Prepare the brown-green vatan – grind together – 2 heaped tablespoons of toasted dried shredded coconut, 1/3 cup of fried onion, 1/3 cup of cilantro leaves, 10-12 cloves of garlic and 2 1 inch pieces of ginger.

• This makes about 6 tablespoons of masala (vatan). For this recipe you will only need 2 tbsp of it. you can store the rest and use it in other curries. tastes good with eggplant and potato curry – for example). You can also make only 1/3 of the above recipe to make only enough for this dish.
• Once all the prep is done and the shrimp is marinated, heat some coconut oil in a pan and saute the onions till lightly pink-golden – do not brown.

• Once the onions are cooked, add the shrimp along with the marinade juice
• saute till the color changes slightly. Add 1 cup of warm water at this point and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and keep aside covered.

• In a separate pan, preferably non-stick one (learnt this the hard way, ignore the non-non-stick pan in pictures), heat some ghee and add the whole spices (cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and black pepper), saute for a second and add the dried drained rice.
• Saute the rice well, till it is glazed with ghee all over. then add 1 tsp chilli powder, 1/2 tsp turmeric powder, 1/2 tsp garam masala and some salt.

• Add 1-2 tbsp of the brown green vatan and mix well.
• Saute well till aromatic. After the mixture is dry and aromatic, add the stock from the prawn mixture.
• Add the rest of the 1 cup of hot water and bring to a boil.

• Add the 1/2 cup of coconut milk and chopped tomatoes to the boiling mixture.
• Taste the broth and adjust salt and chilli powder if needed at this point.
• Cover and cook for about 10-15 minutes.
• At this point the rice should be almost cooked (~75%) Add the cooked shrimp and mix in the semi-cooked rice.
• Cover and cook for 5-10 more minutes till the rice is completely cooked.

• Garnish with some freshly chopped cilantro and fried onions (optional) and serve piping hot
• This dish is traditionally served along with fried fish on the side 🙂 My husband loves to add some extra ghee and lime juice on top